An inside look at the production of the Stephen Colbert SAHD ReportTopic: Media

Eamon Stookesberry,
the Texas at-home dad featured (see video on right) on the Colbert
Report last week agreed to clear up a few questions the readers had on the planning and
filming of the SAHD piece. Eamon says Colbert Report producer, Aaron Cohen originally
thought of doing the piece at the At-Home Dad Convention
last November but felt
he
needed something with a more personal feel. When he saw a local CBS affiliate
story (left video) done on the Austin Stay At Home Dads group they
tracked Eamon down and asked if they could film "a day in the
life"...

I'll let Eamon share with us the rest of the story......

That was a hard sell to the boss (also known
as my lovely and gracious wife Tracie/Tasty!) but she agreed and the
producer and asst. producer arrived at my door step at 6:30 in the morning
to capture the morning routine. They followed me around all day with a
camera crew in tow. They interviewed a bunch of the dads at the park and
tried to get every one of us to say: "My name is ------ and I am SAHD
:-( They had me do multiple takes
folding laundry, vaccuummmiiinnnggg... and I think I cleaned the kitchen
counter about 8 times and used a Wet Swiffer(c) (which does ROCK!!!) for
about 6 passes. That floor was CLEAN!!!!

They taped us waiting for Lord Tracie/Tasty
to arrive home and then had her sit on the couch and drink a beer while they
interviewed her. I was waiting for them to ask her to scratch her balls and
burp, but they didn't. One of the funniest lines from her was when they
asked her about how she felt about making me do all this house work and how
I do not get paid. She said "he does get paid! He has a roof over his
head, he is obviously well fed. He's my Bitch!!!!" I was
surprised that that did not get in there instead of saying" Sometimes I
feel like I have a wife". " He's my Bitch!!" would have been
way funnier.

They then went with me to one of our monthly
DNO's (Dads Night Out) to film us there. They had the bar/restaurant put the
home shopping network on the big screen TVs and had a bunch of Shirley
temples dressed with the fruitiest frilliest crap possible delivered to our
table and asked us to sip at them like women do. I revolted and got my team,
when it was our turn to drink them on camera, to pound them in a race. I
guess it was too manly, it did not make the cut. Hehehehehehe

They said that the original idea was to do a
piece about how pissed off Colbert is to find out that there is a sub-class
of workers in the US that are being exploited. Here is a copy of the
original description from the producer about what angle they might possibly
take:

Our
angle is more or less the following:

Stephen
is astonished to learn about the existence of stay-at-home-dads. He believes
that they are economically oppressed, exploited workers. They rise
early, clean, cook, perform child-care and household-management duties --
all for no money! He wonders whether they should be paid a decent
wage.

(And
by the way, for Stephen, women who stay at home don?t need to get
paid because they innately know to do this work, and they enjoy it to boot.)

Here
are some sample questions for Tracy :

what
reactions do you get from people when you explain that your husband stays at
home?

-did
you ever have second thoughts about your decision?

-is
it sometimes a relief to head out the door in the morning, off to a relaxing
office?

-is
there a working-wives-of-stay-at-home-dads group in your area?

-are
you planning to give Eamon a Christmas bonus this year?

They had NO interest in the acronym that I
came up with which is DADMAN (Dad All Day - Man All Night) or the shirts
that I had made (see below). They very much wanted us to play up the fact
that we were sad/SAHD.

Even though it was different than what had
originally been planned, it was still funny as hell and we have had very
positive feed back from just about everybody from members of the group,
family and friends and even a teacher at my sons school approached me today
and said she saw us on TV and thought it was great.

Well I have to go clean the kitchen with my
Rockin' Wet Swiffer (c) and then get dinner started.

Thanks Eamon!!!

The biggest question bought up
was a near shocking, but hilarious scene where Colbert appeared to
be hugging and groping Eamon's wife Tracie in the mirror. Was
he? Eamon assured me it wasn't his wife. Several people were
shocked that "Tasty" would let Stephen grope her ass, but it
was not her. My guess is it was one of his interns or something. (Stephen
did not come out for the actual filming.)

Personally
I though the piece was hilarious, and a quick look at the dad
message boards show that most that viewed the piece agreed. Had this
been a "serious report" the outcry would have been deafening but
only Stephen Colbert and writers could pull off a parody like this and get
such a positive response.

The original concept is much better and I would have loved to see that one. It would have portrayed us SAHD (sad) men as far more worthy. We have enough people on a regular basis trying to analyze what's 'wrong' with us. We didn't need a fake news program playing us to be depressed maids to even one person that might have taken the segment literally.

Nothing against the people in it, but I didn't like the segment as it was.

Eamon that is indeed a great shirt! Would love to know how to get one.

I have to agree with Kevin. This Colbert piece did us absolutely no favors. Eamon, you're a hero and I have so much respect for you and the guys in Austin. But at the same time, the Colbert piece did nothing but set us back ten years plus. The original version would have been better, albeit still undermining.

The local Austin News story however is fantastic!

Cheers,Dan BolesStay At Home Dad to Drew (2)http://babiesandbeer.blogspot.comhttp://bolesfamily.blogspot.com